Adeyinka Shoyemi, a Nigerian living in west London, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in Nigeria for using provocative texts to incite racial hate and violence.
Messages uploaded by accounts using the name ‘Adeyinka Grandson’ were evaluated by a specialised group of police in the Met’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, according to the Evening Standard.
The 45-year-old was originally brought to counter-terror police’s notice in March 2019 when members of the public denounced him for targeting specific ethnic communities in Nigeria, according to the article.
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Shoyemi’s tweets, which included remarks advocating assaults against various ethnic groups, were flagged as possibly breaking the law, prompting an investigation.
Shoyemi had attacked Igbos and other nations who disagreed with him on social media.
He also claimed that Igbo and Fulani people are to blame for Yorubaland’s problems, claiming that they are murdering Yorubas and raping their children.
Shoyemi alleged that the majority of the police officers in the #EndSARS campaign in October 2020 were Fulanis and Igbos who exploited their positions to kill Yorubas.
The defendant was first charged with six counts of inciting racial hate after being apprehended at his home address in August 2019 and having his home examined by authorities.
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He was freed on bond with the condition that he not make any further social media posts that were threatening, abusive, or disrespectful to any ethnic communities, but he disobeyed his bail terms.
He was then re-arrested, and two new accusations of inciting racial hate were filed against him.
On Thursday, Shoyemi was sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars and was found guilty of eight counts of inciting racial hatred after a trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Commander Richard Smith, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said, “Our Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit – the first of its kind to be established anywhere in the world – was instrumental in identifying Shoyemi and his activity.
He said, the CTIRU has in over ten years, been at the forefront of getting harmful content removed from the internet and detecting and investigating potential terrorist-related activity online.
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He also encouraged anyone who comes across material or posts that could be related to terrorism or violent extremist activity to report it to the police.
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